In late October 2011, Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, a member of the militant
group al Shabaab, killed six and injured dozens more in central Nairobi.
The attack was significant not only because it was part of a sudden
upswing in jihadist terrorism in Kenya but also because Oliacha is a
native Muslim Kenyan. Until recently, experts assumed that al Shabaab's
recruitment in Kenya was limited to the country's Somali minority, which
numbers roughly a million people. But Oliacha's assault and others like
it have forced a reassessment of the nature of militancy in Kenya.

Although jihadists have long been active in Kenya -- one of al
Qaeda's first major strikes, in 1998, targeted the U.S. embassy in
Nairobi -- for years native Muslim Kenyans almost never took part in
terrorist attacks. Kenya, which is dominated by a large Christian
majority, has a history of religious tolerance, and its Muslim
population is no exception. In fact, native Kenyans were usually on the
other side of terrorism: The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a
peacekeeping alliance of East African militaries that was created in
2007 to help prop up Somalia's transitional government and fight al
Shabaab, has had a significant Kenyan contingent.

But tensions between the Christian majority and the Muslim minority
are building. There are many reasons for this, but they include the
growth of confrontational Salafi groups and the economic and political
marginalization of Muslims. Those problems have been exacerbated by
attacks on churches that are specifically designed to provoke communal
anxiety. Last November, Christian Kenyan youths rioted in response to a
grenade explosion in the Nairobi slum of Eastleigh, attacking Muslims
and their businesses. Al Shabaab immediately took to Twitter to
capitalize on the sectarianism, claiming that Muslims in Kenya "must
construe these attacks as a clear declaration of war against them and
defend their properties and their honour." The escalation of these
tensions over the past few years is certainly one reason why there are
now an estimated 500 Kenyan Muslims currently in al Shabaab's ranks in
Somalia.

In mid-2012, I met with six Kenyan ex-al Shabaab members to learn
about their experiences. One of them, "Hassan," was recruited in 2008 by
Kenya's Muslim Youth Center, an al Shabaab outpost in Nairobi's
Muslim-majority slum of Majengo. Although religious, the 16-year-old was
not ideologically committed to jihad. Instead, Hassan found a
comforting companionship in the MYC's charismatic leader Ahmed Iman Ali
and his followers. Promises of money -- 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($470) a
month -- also helped. "I needed money for high school and planned to do
it for a bit, save money, and then go to college and also help my
grandmother who I lived with," he told me.

Hassan underwent three months of indoctrination in another nearby
jihadist mosque in Majengo before traveling blindfolded by car to
Somalia with a group of friends. He recalls hearing the driver
negotiating with suspicious Kenyan border guards, who eventually
accepted a 50,000-shilling bribe ($590) to wave them through. Once in
Somalia, Hassan was quickly put to work raiding local villages. He was
forced to maim, kill, and steal, helping both to fund al Shabaab and
establish it as a force with which to be reckoned.

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In late October 2011, Elgiva Bwire Oliacha, a member of the militant
group al Shabaab, killed six and injured dozens more in central Nairobi.
The attack was significant not only because it was part of a sudden
upswing in jihadist terrorism in Kenya but also because Oliacha is a
native Muslim Kenyan. Until recently, experts assumed that al Shabaab's
recruitment in Kenya was limited to the country's Somali minority, which
numbers roughly a million people. But Oliacha's assault and others like
it have forced a reassessment of the nature of militancy in Kenya.

Although jihadists have long been active in Kenya -- one of al
Qaeda's first major strikes, in 1998, targeted the U.S. embassy in
Nairobi -- for years native Muslim Kenyans almost never took part in
terrorist attacks. Kenya, which is dominated by a large Christian
majority, has a history of religious tolerance, and its Muslim
population is no exception. In fact, native Kenyans were usually on the
other side of terrorism: The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a
peacekeeping alliance of East African militaries that was created in
2007 to help prop up Somalia's transitional government and fight al
Shabaab, has had a significant Kenyan contingent.

But tensions between the Christian majority and the Muslim minority
are building. There are many reasons for this, but they include the
growth of confrontational Salafi groups and the economic and political
marginalization of Muslims. Those problems have been exacerbated by
attacks on churches that are specifically designed to provoke communal
anxiety. Last November, Christian Kenyan youths rioted in response to a
grenade explosion in the Nairobi slum of Eastleigh, attacking Muslims
and their businesses. Al Shabaab immediately took to Twitter to
capitalize on the sectarianism, claiming that Muslims in Kenya "must
construe these attacks as a clear declaration of war against them and
defend their properties and their honour." The escalation of these
tensions over the past few years is certainly one reason why there are
now an estimated 500 Kenyan Muslims currently in al Shabaab's ranks in
Somalia.

In mid-2012, I met with six Kenyan ex-al Shabaab members to learn
about their experiences. One of them, "Hassan," was recruited in 2008 by
Kenya's Muslim Youth Center, an al Shabaab outpost in Nairobi's
Muslim-majority slum of Majengo. Although religious, the 16-year-old was
not ideologically committed to jihad. Instead, Hassan found a
comforting companionship in the MYC's charismatic leader Ahmed Iman Ali
and his followers. Promises of money -- 40,000 Kenyan shillings ($470) a
month -- also helped. "I needed money for high school and planned to do
it for a bit, save money, and then go to college and also help my
grandmother who I lived with," he told me.

Hassan underwent three months of indoctrination in another nearby
jihadist mosque in Majengo before traveling blindfolded by car to
Somalia with a group of friends. He recalls hearing the driver
negotiating with suspicious Kenyan border guards, who eventually
accepted a 50,000-shilling bribe ($590) to wave them through. Once in
Somalia, Hassan was quickly put to work raiding local villages. He was
forced to maim, kill, and steal, helping both to fund al Shabaab and
establish it as a force with which to be reckoned.